Ball drying pouch

ABSTRACT

A ball drying pouch for, e.g., a football or soccer ball has an absorbent interior liner and a water repellent exterior layer. Fasteners permit the pouch to be worn by an official. The top and bottom edges of the pouch are permanently closed. One or both side edges afford an opening for insertion of a ball for drying.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a ball drying implement for use by an officialto dry such game balls as footballs or soccer balls and moreparticularly to a wearable pouch with an interior of water absorbingmaterial.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A football player or fan will be familiar with an official's use of atowel to dry the game ball when a game is being played in rain or snow.

The use of a pouch for the purpose of drying footballs has beensuggested known in the art. One such pouch is shown in a Stephenson U.S.Pat. No. 5,615,769. That pouch has an outer waterproof covering and aninterior, removable moisture-absorbent liner. The pouch has at its topan opening closable by a flap and held closed by hook and loopfasteners. In use the pouch's sides are tied closed by laces. Insertionand retrieval of the football is through the upper opening so that itappears one hand would be needed to pull back the closure flap and theremaining hand of the wearer would be needed to insert or retrieve thefootball. The pouch is supported by a strap hung from the official'sneck and shoulders.

In another U.S. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,287 to Martin, a pair ofstretchable bag-like ball carriers are attached by a long cord to bedraped over the wearer's shoulders. The ball carriers stretch about theexterior of a pair of footballs to hold extra footballs for a game, andthey protect those footballs from the weather. There is no, mention ofdrying the football once it has been in use. Other patents such as thoseto Hendren U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,080 and Lamonakis et al. U.S. Pat. No.5,372,414 relate to towels that can be worn for the purpose of drying aball and include multiple layers. In the Hendren patent, an outer layerof toweling is separated from an inner chamois layer by a waterimpervious layer. The Hendren arrangement is not a pouch for holding aball, but rather a multilayer towel. The Lamonakis et al. patent shows abell-shaped “skirt” of water repellent material that is placed over atowel to keep dry the towel. Lamonakis et al. contemplate inverting theentire arrangement to expose the towel so that a ball can be wiped. Thearrangement is not a pouch that can carry a ball or enclose a ball as itis being dried.

There remains a need, therefore, for a ball drying pouch for use, e.g.,with footballs or soccer balls in wet conditions wherein the ball can beinserted easily and one handedly and similarly easily retrieved once theball has been rubbed dry by an interior water-absorbent liner.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention a ball drying pouch has anexterior layer of substantially water impervious flexible sheet materialand an inner lining layer of water absorbent material. The exterior andinterior layers are formed, as by sewing or folding, into a pouchcapable of containing a ball to be dried. The top and bottom of thepouch so fashioned is closed. One or both side edges of the pouch formopenings into which the ball can be inserted. Because the bottom of thepouch is permanently closed, there is little likelihood that an officialusing the pouch will drop the ball, but only one hand is needed toinsert the ball from the side into the pouch to be briefly rubbed, andthen retracted, again by a single hand. A busy on-field official canthus readily accomplish drying the ball without diverting his or herattention from other activities on the field.

In a preferred exemplary embodiment the interior layer of the pouch ischamois. Also in the exemplary preferred embodiment the pouch hasattachment provisions for securing the pouch to the official's person orclothing. Typically in the preferred embodiment the pouch is secured tothe wearer's belt at two locations along the top of the pouch. Onepreferred attachment arrangement includes strap loops that receive awearer's belt to hold the pouch in place. The strap loops can havefasteners that open and close to open and close the loops about thewearer's belt. The strap loops are in one exemplary embodiment sewn tothe pouch body. Similarly in one exemplary embodiment the interior waterabsorbent layer is sewn to the exterior water repellent or imperviouslayer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front view of an official wearing a ball dryingpouch in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of the pouch of FIG. 1 and shows itsside openings and loop fasteners;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view showing the manner ofassembly of the pouch and the loop fasteners; and

FIG. 4 is a further fragmentary front view of the official inserting afootball into the ball drying pouch of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As seen in FIG. 1, a football official 10 wears a pouch 12 secured tohis belt 14 by a pair of strap loops 16 and 18.

As shown in FIG. 2 the pouch has a closed top edge 20, a closed bottomedge 22, and a pair of side edges 24 and 26 at which are formed openings28 and 30. Fixed to the pouch at or near the top edge 20 are a pair ofstrap loops 32 and 34 for securing the pouch to an official's belt. Apair of quick fasteners 36 and 38 of a known commercially available kindpermit opening and closing of the loops 32 and 34. Other fasteners thanthose shown can be used as desired. For example Velcro loop and hookfastening patches, snaps, ties or any other known, convenient fastenersuitable to bring together the two strap pieces into a loop willsuffice. Likewise fastening devices other than the strap loops can holdthe pouch 12 in place. For example, hook and loop fastening patchessecured to the pouch and the official's uniform could be used to securethe pouch. Clips positioned to clip onto the official's belt loops andattached at or near the top edge 20 of the pouch 12 is a further examplealternative.

The construction of the pouch is better illustrated from FIG. 3. In theillustrated exemplary embodiment shown, the pouch is formed by anexterior layer 40 of substantially waterproof or water repellentmaterial such as vinyl or other plastic. An interior layer 42 is ofchamois or other water absorbent material. In this exemplary embodimentthe chamois layer 42 is sewn to the external water resistant material 40as indicated at 44, 46 and 48. At the top edge of the pouch 12, severalstrips of binding material 50, 52 and 54 (seen in FIG. 2) are sewn alongthe edge. The strips straddle the top edge of the brought-togetherlayers and have down-turned edges. Stitching 48 shown in FIG. 3 stitchestogether the edges of the strips 50, 52 and 54 and the top four edges ofthe layers 40 and 42. The straps that form the strap loops 32 and 34have strap ends sewn into the interior of the pouch as indicated at 56.In this particular exemplary embodiment the bottom of the pouch isformed by a seam 58 where the four layers of material are broughttogether, turned inward and sewn at 46. It will also be appreciatedthat, alternatively, a single piece of the multilayer material could befolded at the bottom to form the bottom edge 22.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, because the pouch 12 is open at its sides itis easy for an official to insert a ball, dry the ball and extract theball with little attention to those operations and without even lookingat the pouch and ball. As previously stated this has the advantage ofpermitting the official to pay more attention to the activities on thefield. While stitching has been shown to join the inner and outer layersof the exemplary pouch, it will be appreciated that other means such ashook and loop fastening patches, snaps, laces or other connection meansmay be used to secure the chamois or other water absorbent layer withinthe exterior. Also while the joiner of the two layers has been shown inthe preferred embodiment as being permanent, the interior lining couldbe removable if, for example, hook and loop fastening or other easilyseparable fastening means are used. Also, while both sides of the pouchof the exemplary embodiment have been shown as open, it will beappreciated that just one side could be open without unduly increasingthe difficulty of inserting the ball, drying the ball and retrieving theball for play.

While a particular exemplary and preferred embodiment has been shown, itwill be appreciated that many changes, modifications or revisions in thedescribed ball drying pouch may be made as will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art and without departure from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as set forth in the appended claims.

1. A ball drying pouch comprising: (a) an exterior layer ofsubstantially water impervious flexible sheet, (b) an interior lininglayer of water absorbent material affixed to the exterior layer, (c) theexterior and interior layers forming a pouch body that has: (i) a closedtop and bottom, and (ii) at least one opening at a side edge of thepouch body, and (d) means secured to the pouch for attaching the pouchbody to a wearer.
 2. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the pouchbody has two openings at two side edges of the pouch body.
 3. The pouchaccording to claim 1, wherein the means for attaching includes afastening means at each of two locations at or near the top of the pouchbody.
 4. The pouch according to claim 3, wherein the fastening means arestrap loops affixed to the pouch body for receiving a wearer's belt. 5.The pouch according to claim 4, wherein the strap loops carry fastenerpairs for opening the strap loops and closing the strap loops about thewearer's belt.
 6. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein the interiorlayer is chamois.
 7. The pouch according to claim 1, wherein theinterior layer is sewn to the exterior layer.
 8. The pouch according toclaim 5, wherein the strap loops are sewn to the pouch body.